I'm currently spending my Saturday afternoon grading 8 huge piles of work. Coming into this, I knew becoming a teacher would be a challenging endeavor, but I think little could have prepared me for the sheer volume of work that this all entails. I can't help but think that joining Teach For America has fast-forwarded my life from being a 21 year-old college student to a boring 35 year old.
Experiencing first-hand all the effort it takes to become a effective teacher has given me a new-found appreciation for the great teachers that I have had.
All along, I had some notion that teachers did a lot for their students, but I had no idea the level of thought and detail that went into each lesson. Last week for example, I taught my students about calculating taxes, tips, and discounts. It's been fun teaching more real-world skills now that we have a foundation set from the first unit. I set up a pretend mall in my room with grocery stores, clothing stores, a restaurant, and a barber shop. That alone took several days to prepare for. And to think that there are teachers that have been putting in all this time and energy year in and year out; I just think that's amazing.
On the flip side, I can't help but think of some of the mediocre teachers I've had. Looking back, I now know with almost 100% certainty that there were some teachers who arrived each day without a lesson plan. They probably just winged their classes. I remember some teachers that literally taught for 5 minutes and then went back to their desk to check their email and the weather. To those teachers, all I can say is "shame on you." You had an opportunity impart your knowledge, and make a positive impact on your students. That opportunity was wasted.
On a more positive note, yesterday my school had an all-school field trip. We went to the Oil Ranch about an hour outside of Houston. The day was spent going on hay rides, mini-golfing, going to a petting zoo etc. The weather has been great lately, reminding me off summers in Seattle. It was fun to get to know my students in a non-academic environment. I think I'm pretty lucky to have the group of students that I have. I would say most are good kids, and I'm excited to see how my relationships with my students will progress over the school year.
Here are a couple students quotes from last week...
Me: "When I was 16, I got my first job, and I was able to earn some commission"
Student: "When was that? The 90s?"
Student as we drive by Chinatown on the way to our field trip: "Can you read that?"
Me: "No, that's actually Chinese. I speak Vietnamese"
Student: "What's the difference? Is Vietnamese just like Chinese, but you were born in America?"
Student: "Mr. Tran, what were you like in middle school?
Me: "What do you mean?"
Student: "Like, were you a tattle-tale, or were you cool?"
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Another Month Flies By
At least once a week, usually while I'm driving to work, the reality of my new lie hits me. One year ago at this time, I was heading into my final quarter of college. Since then, I graduated from UW, did some traveling, started my first real job, quit my first real job, did a complete 180 on my career path, moved half-way across the country, and ended here in Houston as middle school math teacher. So much has changed over the past year, but I can say without hesitation that I am happy with how things have unfolded.
Last week, I finished my first 6 week term as a teacher. My school has 6 terms, so I'm already 1/5 of the way through my first year as a teacher. It's crazy how time flies. I gave out my first big test, and was pleasantly surprised by how my students did. At the same time though, I still know there's so much work to be done. When students arrive at my school in the 6th grade, they're often several grade levels behind, because the elementary schools where they attended were so low-performing. My principal has said that because of this, 6th and 7th grade are in many ways the hardest years to teach, as the students transition. To put on top of this, several of my students are Special Ed students. My school believes in mainstreaming all students, so one of my challenges ahead of me is to figure out how I will reach out to my lowest students.
With that said, I still want to hold my students to the highest expectation, so one of my big goals for the year is to get 100% of my students to pass the math section of the TAKS (Texas's standardized test). I know the goal is lofty, but I often feel because of the school I'm at, reaching for anything less would be settling. In fact, my school's results have been so outstanding that we were featured on Oprah last week, and we received a one million dollar check from Oprah! (No I don't think any of that money will go directly to my paycheck) At my school, I am surrounded by such high achieving teachers; it's very humbling, if not somewhat intimidating. I think the environment is healthy for me though. I'm pretty competitive, so it has just pushed me to work harder to become a better teacher. On an average week, I easily work 70 hours, and sometimes push 80. The sheer volume of work the a first year teacher faces is daunting. Before this, I never understood how it was humanly possible to work that many hours in a week. Oddly though, even despite the few grey hairs that have now found their way on to my head, I'm still happy. At the end of the day, I know I'm doing something important, and that I am a part of something so much greater than myself.
Outside of my math classes, I also started a cultural film appreciation club. From the quotes I shared in my last 2 blogs, you might have noticed that my students don't have much exposure to cultures outside of their own. I'm almost positive that I am the first Asian teacher they've ever had, and because the school is 2/3 Hispanic and 1/3 black, my students don't really seem to know about any other cultures other than Hispanic and black culture. My club has about 25 students, and I'm hoping that through some movies, they can learn about other cultures and demystify some of the stereotypes they hold. Right now, we're watching Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. But don't worry, I'm not trying to push only an Asian agenda. We'll also watch Hotel Rwanda, Kite Runner, and a few others.
I'll close again with some students quotes. I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but here a few good ones.
Me: "Notre Dame football is always overrated"
Student: "Oh, you mean like PG 13, and R-rated?"
Me: "Hahaha, no. Overrated, not R-rated"
Student: "You're Mexican, right?"
Me: "No, I'm Vietnamese. My parents are from Vietnam"
Student: "Where's Vietnam?"
Me: "South of China"
Student: "Do they speak Spanish in Vietnam?"
Thinking to myself: "I think I just died inside a little bit"
Me: "You're such a smart alec"
Student: "What's a smart alec? All my teachers call me that"
Thinking to myself: "Wait, are you being a smart alec with right now?"
Me intoducing a lesson about sales tax: "I went to the store and got $20 worth of supplies for the class. I went up to the cashier and gave her a $20 bill, and she laughed at me, and said that wasn't enough money. What did I forget?"
Student 1: "Tax!"
Me: "You're right. I totally forgot I had to pay tax. Today we'll be talking all about taxes!"
Student 2: "Mr. Tran, are you sure you didn't make up that story? You're a GROWN UP! Grown-ups don't forget tax. They don't make those types of mistakes."
Me: "You don't think my story is true?!? Grown-ups make mistakes all the time"
Last week, I finished my first 6 week term as a teacher. My school has 6 terms, so I'm already 1/5 of the way through my first year as a teacher. It's crazy how time flies. I gave out my first big test, and was pleasantly surprised by how my students did. At the same time though, I still know there's so much work to be done. When students arrive at my school in the 6th grade, they're often several grade levels behind, because the elementary schools where they attended were so low-performing. My principal has said that because of this, 6th and 7th grade are in many ways the hardest years to teach, as the students transition. To put on top of this, several of my students are Special Ed students. My school believes in mainstreaming all students, so one of my challenges ahead of me is to figure out how I will reach out to my lowest students.
With that said, I still want to hold my students to the highest expectation, so one of my big goals for the year is to get 100% of my students to pass the math section of the TAKS (Texas's standardized test). I know the goal is lofty, but I often feel because of the school I'm at, reaching for anything less would be settling. In fact, my school's results have been so outstanding that we were featured on Oprah last week, and we received a one million dollar check from Oprah! (No I don't think any of that money will go directly to my paycheck) At my school, I am surrounded by such high achieving teachers; it's very humbling, if not somewhat intimidating. I think the environment is healthy for me though. I'm pretty competitive, so it has just pushed me to work harder to become a better teacher. On an average week, I easily work 70 hours, and sometimes push 80. The sheer volume of work the a first year teacher faces is daunting. Before this, I never understood how it was humanly possible to work that many hours in a week. Oddly though, even despite the few grey hairs that have now found their way on to my head, I'm still happy. At the end of the day, I know I'm doing something important, and that I am a part of something so much greater than myself.
Outside of my math classes, I also started a cultural film appreciation club. From the quotes I shared in my last 2 blogs, you might have noticed that my students don't have much exposure to cultures outside of their own. I'm almost positive that I am the first Asian teacher they've ever had, and because the school is 2/3 Hispanic and 1/3 black, my students don't really seem to know about any other cultures other than Hispanic and black culture. My club has about 25 students, and I'm hoping that through some movies, they can learn about other cultures and demystify some of the stereotypes they hold. Right now, we're watching Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. But don't worry, I'm not trying to push only an Asian agenda. We'll also watch Hotel Rwanda, Kite Runner, and a few others.
I'll close again with some students quotes. I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but here a few good ones.
Me: "Notre Dame football is always overrated"
Student: "Oh, you mean like PG 13, and R-rated?"
Me: "Hahaha, no. Overrated, not R-rated"
Student: "You're Mexican, right?"
Me: "No, I'm Vietnamese. My parents are from Vietnam"
Student: "Where's Vietnam?"
Me: "South of China"
Student: "Do they speak Spanish in Vietnam?"
Thinking to myself: "I think I just died inside a little bit"
Me: "You're such a smart alec"
Student: "What's a smart alec? All my teachers call me that"
Thinking to myself: "Wait, are you being a smart alec with right now?"
Me intoducing a lesson about sales tax: "I went to the store and got $20 worth of supplies for the class. I went up to the cashier and gave her a $20 bill, and she laughed at me, and said that wasn't enough money. What did I forget?"
Student 1: "Tax!"
Me: "You're right. I totally forgot I had to pay tax. Today we'll be talking all about taxes!"
Student 2: "Mr. Tran, are you sure you didn't make up that story? You're a GROWN UP! Grown-ups don't forget tax. They don't make those types of mistakes."
Me: "You don't think my story is true?!? Grown-ups make mistakes all the time"
Thursday, August 26, 2010
First Month of Teaching
I said I would be more diligent about updating this blog, but here I am a month later, finally posting something new. I guess you can say that it's an indication of how busy I've been.
Since my last blog, I started teaching, and now have almost 4 weeks of teaching (and my first parent open house) under my belt. My initial thoughts: I love my school, and students are great. Before going on though, I feel like I should properly introduce my school - the school where TFA has placed me for the next two years.
I'm currently teaching 7th grade math at YES Prep Southwest in the outskirts of Houston. Like all of TFA's schools, my school's student population is overwhelmingly low-income, first generation minority students. Statistically, these are the students who perform the poorest across the nation. However, my school is, in my opinion, perfect proof that these same students can and will succeed. YES Prep schools in Houston have sent 100% of their graduating seniors on to a 4 year university, and my school has been recognized by the state of Texas as exemplary. To qualify as exemplary, a school must have an average of 90% or above of students passing the state's standardized tests. As a charter school, my school has more flexibility to create an environment which fosters student achievement. Students, grades 6 through 12, go to school for 8 periods a day from 7:30 to 4:30, and get 2 periods of math and English a day. Pretty much everything at the school is designed to get the students college-ready. Also, the disciplinary system at my school is extremely strict, and because of it, students are generally well-behaved, which makes my job a lot easier. I actually get to teach, rather than get too bogged down on behavioral management (I hope I'm not jinxing that). The staff at my school is also almost exclusively a bunch of extremely driven, 20-somethings, many of whom have some sort of affiliation with TFA. It's been so refreshing being around a young, dynamic environment. At times, it has felt kind of daunting being around people who have been so successful. I catch myself wondering if I can live up to such high standards, but then I remember how lucky I am to have so many great resources around me, who can help me become the teacher that I want to be.
With that quick background on my school, I would say that the first few weeks have gone pretty well. The first week was all half-days - a week that the school calls pre-term. During this week, the focus was primarily culture building and going over rules and procedures. It was nice to have this week to get to know the students before having to drill them with math. Following pre-term, we jumped right into to teaching math. For those of you who don't remember what 7th grade math is, because I certainly didn't, it's essentially pre-algebra. My students have been learning about fractions/decimals/percents, how to convert back and forth between the three, how to divide fractions, how to divide decimals etc. One huge challenge ahead of me is that YES Prep expects students to be taking 9th grade algebra by 8th grade. This means that I have to cover 2 years of math in 1 year! Fortunately, I have been teaching alongside a 2nd year teacher, who has been so great in helping me figure out what exactly I need to teach. We have our own classes, but we're expected to plan together and teach the exact same material. So far, teaching "for real" has been so much less hectic than the institute training from earlier in the summer. I actually manage to sleep more than 4-5 hours a night!
I should also should share that in middle school, students travel around all day in homerooms. This is basically a group of 35 or so students who have the same schedule and go to all the same classes together. In the morning, they meet in their homeroom for a zero-period, and the homerooms are named after the teacher's alma matter. Thus, I have a Washington Huskies homeroom! My room is obnoxiously purple and gold. I think everyone back home would appreciate that fact. Plus, I combined my UW pride, with my classroom theme of "Baller Scholars." It's so corny, but so hilarious to call my students Mr. Tran's baller scholars. I feel like 7th graders are still at that age where they're not "too cool for school" yet, so they can still buy into the corny stuff I do. They're mostly still pretty innocent, just with some middle school attitude.
I'll close by sharing some quotes. I'm going to try to keep a log of these, because I hear some of the most hilarious/ridiculous things.
Me: When I was in college, I studied and lived in Italy for 4 months
Student: Oh, so do you speak Italian?
Me: Umm, kind of. I know a few words. But luckily, I took Spanish in high school, and that really helped. Spanish and Italian are really similar.
Student: Oh, so is Italian like Spanish with an accent?
Student: Mister, can I ask you a question?
Me: Sure
Student: Are you Asian?
High school student to another teacher during the 1st week: Who's that? Why is he out of uniform?
Teacher: That's not a student. That's Mr. Tran, the new 7th grade math teacher.
Student: Mr. Tran, how old are you? 30?
Me: No...You think I'm 30?
Student: Yea, like how old are your kids?
Student: Mr. Tran, is this what you do for the Washington Huskies? (Shows me the Texas Longhorns hand gesture)
Me: No, that's what people do for the Texas Longhorns. But at the University of Washington, we put our fingers together like this to make a "W"
Thinking to myself a moment later: Oh my god, I just taught my class a gang sign
Next day same student walk into class: Mr. Tran, I've been practice my Washington "W". *Throws up the Westside gang sign*
Since my last blog, I started teaching, and now have almost 4 weeks of teaching (and my first parent open house) under my belt. My initial thoughts: I love my school, and students are great. Before going on though, I feel like I should properly introduce my school - the school where TFA has placed me for the next two years.
I'm currently teaching 7th grade math at YES Prep Southwest in the outskirts of Houston. Like all of TFA's schools, my school's student population is overwhelmingly low-income, first generation minority students. Statistically, these are the students who perform the poorest across the nation. However, my school is, in my opinion, perfect proof that these same students can and will succeed. YES Prep schools in Houston have sent 100% of their graduating seniors on to a 4 year university, and my school has been recognized by the state of Texas as exemplary. To qualify as exemplary, a school must have an average of 90% or above of students passing the state's standardized tests. As a charter school, my school has more flexibility to create an environment which fosters student achievement. Students, grades 6 through 12, go to school for 8 periods a day from 7:30 to 4:30, and get 2 periods of math and English a day. Pretty much everything at the school is designed to get the students college-ready. Also, the disciplinary system at my school is extremely strict, and because of it, students are generally well-behaved, which makes my job a lot easier. I actually get to teach, rather than get too bogged down on behavioral management (I hope I'm not jinxing that). The staff at my school is also almost exclusively a bunch of extremely driven, 20-somethings, many of whom have some sort of affiliation with TFA. It's been so refreshing being around a young, dynamic environment. At times, it has felt kind of daunting being around people who have been so successful. I catch myself wondering if I can live up to such high standards, but then I remember how lucky I am to have so many great resources around me, who can help me become the teacher that I want to be.
With that quick background on my school, I would say that the first few weeks have gone pretty well. The first week was all half-days - a week that the school calls pre-term. During this week, the focus was primarily culture building and going over rules and procedures. It was nice to have this week to get to know the students before having to drill them with math. Following pre-term, we jumped right into to teaching math. For those of you who don't remember what 7th grade math is, because I certainly didn't, it's essentially pre-algebra. My students have been learning about fractions/decimals/percents, how to convert back and forth between the three, how to divide fractions, how to divide decimals etc. One huge challenge ahead of me is that YES Prep expects students to be taking 9th grade algebra by 8th grade. This means that I have to cover 2 years of math in 1 year! Fortunately, I have been teaching alongside a 2nd year teacher, who has been so great in helping me figure out what exactly I need to teach. We have our own classes, but we're expected to plan together and teach the exact same material. So far, teaching "for real" has been so much less hectic than the institute training from earlier in the summer. I actually manage to sleep more than 4-5 hours a night!
I should also should share that in middle school, students travel around all day in homerooms. This is basically a group of 35 or so students who have the same schedule and go to all the same classes together. In the morning, they meet in their homeroom for a zero-period, and the homerooms are named after the teacher's alma matter. Thus, I have a Washington Huskies homeroom! My room is obnoxiously purple and gold. I think everyone back home would appreciate that fact. Plus, I combined my UW pride, with my classroom theme of "Baller Scholars." It's so corny, but so hilarious to call my students Mr. Tran's baller scholars. I feel like 7th graders are still at that age where they're not "too cool for school" yet, so they can still buy into the corny stuff I do. They're mostly still pretty innocent, just with some middle school attitude.
I'll close by sharing some quotes. I'm going to try to keep a log of these, because I hear some of the most hilarious/ridiculous things.
Me: When I was in college, I studied and lived in Italy for 4 months
Student: Oh, so do you speak Italian?
Me: Umm, kind of. I know a few words. But luckily, I took Spanish in high school, and that really helped. Spanish and Italian are really similar.
Student: Oh, so is Italian like Spanish with an accent?
Student: Mister, can I ask you a question?
Me: Sure
Student: Are you Asian?
High school student to another teacher during the 1st week: Who's that? Why is he out of uniform?
Teacher: That's not a student. That's Mr. Tran, the new 7th grade math teacher.
Student: Mr. Tran, how old are you? 30?
Me: No...You think I'm 30?
Student: Yea, like how old are your kids?
Student: Mr. Tran, is this what you do for the Washington Huskies? (Shows me the Texas Longhorns hand gesture)
Me: No, that's what people do for the Texas Longhorns. But at the University of Washington, we put our fingers together like this to make a "W"
Thinking to myself a moment later: Oh my god, I just taught my class a gang sign
Next day same student walk into class: Mr. Tran, I've been practice my Washington "W". *Throws up the Westside gang sign*
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Becoming Mr. Tran
Hello friends & family!
First off, I have to apologize if it seems like I've fallen off the face of this Earth over the past month and a half. I know I've been terrible about keeping in touch with everyone. Rest assured, I'm still alive and well, and finally (though with some delay), I've found a moment to create a blog, as I promised I would. I'm hoping through this blog, I can both reflect on my own experiences, and keep everyone updated on my new life as Mr. Tran, 7th grade math teacher.
As most of you know, I recently made the move from Seattle to Houston, Texas to begin a two-year journey with Teach For America (TFA). As a member of TFA's 2010 corps, I've been tasked to serve as a teacher in a high-needs, low-income school, with the overarching goal of closing the achievement gap. To this end, ever since I touched down in Houston in early June, I've been immersed in a completely new life, which has pushed me to find my inner teacher. So much has happened in the past 6+ weeks, but I'll do my best to capture the key points...
When I first arrived in Houston, I was greeted by relatives and had the opportunity to spend a couple days with them, before checking into TFA's summer training. If you were wondering "Why Houston?,"the primary reason I chose Houston was to be close to my extended family, especially my grandparents. Choice #2 was Hawaii. I have to admit that I've caught myself daydreaming about what could have been if I had been placed in Hawaii. My mom has convinced me though, that I would be a terrible teacher in Hawaii, because I would spend too much time at the beach. At any rate, after spending a couple day with my relatives, I checked into what TFA calls "Induction."
During Induction, everyone has the chance to meet fellow TFA corps members from their region (in my case, Houston). There were 3 days straight of events helping us get acclimated to Houston, and several sessions grounding us in the mission of TFA. At 303 teachers strong, Houston has the largest corps in TFA's 20 year history. Most other regions have closer to 100 corps members. From what I understand, there were originally 230 of us placed in Houston. However in May, there was a school district in Houston that was taken over by the state, and all the teachers there were fired, because the district had been performing so poorly. As a result, the district sought out TFA to fill in this huge void. 70 or so teachers later, Houston had over 300 incoming TFA teachers! Since the Houston corps is so large, we are probably not as close-knit as some of the other regions. However, I've still had the opportunity to meet so many great people. It's an awesome feeling being surrounded by a group of mostly recent college graduates, who are so intelligent, motivated, and who share a like-minded commitment to social justice. After getting to know my fellow Houston teachers at Induction, I began TFA's summer institute.
Institute was a five-week intensive training, where we were basically given the foundation to start our new careers as teachers. Institute was like nothing I've ever experienced before. Challenging, exciting, exhausting, and crazy are just a few words that come to mind when I think of my institute experience. If I could draw comparisons, I would say institute was either the equivalent of being in college finals for 5 straight weeks, or being in teaching boot camp. The Houston institute brought together corps members from Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Rio Grande Valley, Miami, and Jacksonville. Together, there were over 800 of us training together.
Once I checked into my dorm room at Rice University, where I stayed for the five weeks of institute, I was told I was to catch a bus the following morning at 6:30. No further detail was really given. The following morning, in my business casual attire, and my TFA-provided lunch bag in hand, I boarded a yellow school bus in-route to what I was told was my "school site." After a 20 minute bus ride, 2 buses full of teachers arrived at Black Middle School, home of the Panthers. Yes, the same thought went through my mind as well...really, the Black Panthers?! Upon arriving at Black Middle School, we were broken into 4 groups of 12. Each group was for a different content area. There was a social studies group, a reading/writing group, a science group, and then my group, the math group. Within my group, 4 were assigned to be 8th grade math teachers, 4 for 7th grade and 4 for 6th grade. I was very fortunate to be assigned as a 7th grade math teacher for summer school, because that is exactly what I will be teaching at my school in the fall. My group of 12 math teachers had a corps member adviser, who basically served as a teacher of math teachers.
The first week of institute consisted of day-long sessions of essentially Teaching 101. We learned about everything from crafting an effective & coherent lesson plan, to classroom management & disciplinary procedures, to finding our "teacher voice." All the information was extremely helpful, but it was definitely information overload, since I have no teaching background. The craziest part was that after only one week at institute, we began teaching summer school. I had my own class - real students, real lessons etc. It was hard for me to wrap my mind around be given so much responsibility so quickly.
Teaching summer school was quite the experience to say the very least. My class size was fairly small, at only 14 students. However, even with the smaller class size there were still many challenges. For one, the students at summer school were there because they had either failed the TAKS (Texas's standardized test), or they passed, but were absent to many times to receive credit. This meant that many of my students were below grade level in math. Additionally, many of the summer school students presented behavioral problems. I think a lot of the misbehavior issues stem from a system that has set such low expectations of students, and has consequently left them feeling like school doesn't matter. My students, in general, were pretty well-behaved for duration of summer school (with the exception of one incident that deserves a separate blog entry). I felt pretty lucky that none of my students was completely out of control, because I certainly heard lots of horror stories from the other teachers at my school site. Having a fairly well-behaved class definitely made it easier for me to teach the material I had planned each day.
Once I began teaching summer school, my daily routine at Black Middle School included going to 3-4 hours of sessions to gain more knowledge about effective teaching, teaching my 7th grade math class, lunch room duty, and then collaborating with my fellow math teachers about the material we had to teach. We didn't have a math book, so a lot of the time, it felt like we were creating everything from scratch. We taught about anything from adding/subtracting negative numbers, to scientific notation, and basic algebra problems. It was challenging to break everything down to small, simple steps, because a lot of the material has become so second nature to me. Then each day, when I got to Rice University, I had to make all the material the following day (notes, worksheets, quizzes, PowerPoints) and rehearse my lesson. Classes were 75 minutes long - in many respects, I felt like I was preparing for a 75 minute presentation everyday. And the difficult part was that every single minute had to be engaging in order to keep the students in check. Add on top of everything, I had to make phone calls to parents, debrief with my adviser about my lessons, turn in future lesson plans drafts and before I knew it, I was consistently up working 19 to 20 hours a day. Day after day of this type of work schedule was physically and mentally exhausting. Yet despite this, I still appreciated every bit of the institute experience, because I knew I was being pushed to become a better teacher, and I believed that I was making daily gains in my own teaching abilities.
By the end of my four weeks teaching summer school, I was happy to see that many of my students had gained something from being in my math class. I came into institute unsure of whether I could really make a difference in the short four week time frame of summer school, but I was pleasantly surprised of the progress that was still made. From that, I have a greater sense of confidence and excitement for what I can do with a full school year. I'll close by sharing some notes that my students wrote. Some are pretty funny, and refreshingly honest:
"You are the best teacher!"
"I think you're my best math teacher ever. Well not the best teacher ever, but you are a cool teacher. The thing I like about you is that you explain stuff in sloooow steps."
"You are the next best math teacher I had."
"This summer I had a pretty good teacher and I really enjoyed your class and I had lots of fun."
"I want to thank you for making me become smarter and better at math. This summer it feels like I've learned a lot. Thanks for teaching me well in class and being patient."
"Thank you for spending your time to teach me everything I need to know for 8th grade, and the rest of my life."
"Mr. Tran, you are the only teacher that has taught me how to divide and I even made a hundred (on 1 quiz). Thanks so much for being patient with me."
"Have a great summer. Don't get injured Mr. Tran!"
I really enjoyed reading those students notes, even the one where the student retracted her statement about me being her best math teacher. Little things like these notes have reaffirmed my decision to join TFA, and give me hope that I might be able to make a difference as a teacher.
I'm sure I forgotten many things that have happened in these past few weeks, but I will leave this blog entry at that, and will be more diligent about updating once I start teaching during the regular school year!
First off, I have to apologize if it seems like I've fallen off the face of this Earth over the past month and a half. I know I've been terrible about keeping in touch with everyone. Rest assured, I'm still alive and well, and finally (though with some delay), I've found a moment to create a blog, as I promised I would. I'm hoping through this blog, I can both reflect on my own experiences, and keep everyone updated on my new life as Mr. Tran, 7th grade math teacher.
As most of you know, I recently made the move from Seattle to Houston, Texas to begin a two-year journey with Teach For America (TFA). As a member of TFA's 2010 corps, I've been tasked to serve as a teacher in a high-needs, low-income school, with the overarching goal of closing the achievement gap. To this end, ever since I touched down in Houston in early June, I've been immersed in a completely new life, which has pushed me to find my inner teacher. So much has happened in the past 6+ weeks, but I'll do my best to capture the key points...
When I first arrived in Houston, I was greeted by relatives and had the opportunity to spend a couple days with them, before checking into TFA's summer training. If you were wondering "Why Houston?,"the primary reason I chose Houston was to be close to my extended family, especially my grandparents. Choice #2 was Hawaii. I have to admit that I've caught myself daydreaming about what could have been if I had been placed in Hawaii. My mom has convinced me though, that I would be a terrible teacher in Hawaii, because I would spend too much time at the beach. At any rate, after spending a couple day with my relatives, I checked into what TFA calls "Induction."
During Induction, everyone has the chance to meet fellow TFA corps members from their region (in my case, Houston). There were 3 days straight of events helping us get acclimated to Houston, and several sessions grounding us in the mission of TFA. At 303 teachers strong, Houston has the largest corps in TFA's 20 year history. Most other regions have closer to 100 corps members. From what I understand, there were originally 230 of us placed in Houston. However in May, there was a school district in Houston that was taken over by the state, and all the teachers there were fired, because the district had been performing so poorly. As a result, the district sought out TFA to fill in this huge void. 70 or so teachers later, Houston had over 300 incoming TFA teachers! Since the Houston corps is so large, we are probably not as close-knit as some of the other regions. However, I've still had the opportunity to meet so many great people. It's an awesome feeling being surrounded by a group of mostly recent college graduates, who are so intelligent, motivated, and who share a like-minded commitment to social justice. After getting to know my fellow Houston teachers at Induction, I began TFA's summer institute.
Institute was a five-week intensive training, where we were basically given the foundation to start our new careers as teachers. Institute was like nothing I've ever experienced before. Challenging, exciting, exhausting, and crazy are just a few words that come to mind when I think of my institute experience. If I could draw comparisons, I would say institute was either the equivalent of being in college finals for 5 straight weeks, or being in teaching boot camp. The Houston institute brought together corps members from Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Rio Grande Valley, Miami, and Jacksonville. Together, there were over 800 of us training together.
Once I checked into my dorm room at Rice University, where I stayed for the five weeks of institute, I was told I was to catch a bus the following morning at 6:30. No further detail was really given. The following morning, in my business casual attire, and my TFA-provided lunch bag in hand, I boarded a yellow school bus in-route to what I was told was my "school site." After a 20 minute bus ride, 2 buses full of teachers arrived at Black Middle School, home of the Panthers. Yes, the same thought went through my mind as well...really, the Black Panthers?! Upon arriving at Black Middle School, we were broken into 4 groups of 12. Each group was for a different content area. There was a social studies group, a reading/writing group, a science group, and then my group, the math group. Within my group, 4 were assigned to be 8th grade math teachers, 4 for 7th grade and 4 for 6th grade. I was very fortunate to be assigned as a 7th grade math teacher for summer school, because that is exactly what I will be teaching at my school in the fall. My group of 12 math teachers had a corps member adviser, who basically served as a teacher of math teachers.
The first week of institute consisted of day-long sessions of essentially Teaching 101. We learned about everything from crafting an effective & coherent lesson plan, to classroom management & disciplinary procedures, to finding our "teacher voice." All the information was extremely helpful, but it was definitely information overload, since I have no teaching background. The craziest part was that after only one week at institute, we began teaching summer school. I had my own class - real students, real lessons etc. It was hard for me to wrap my mind around be given so much responsibility so quickly.
Teaching summer school was quite the experience to say the very least. My class size was fairly small, at only 14 students. However, even with the smaller class size there were still many challenges. For one, the students at summer school were there because they had either failed the TAKS (Texas's standardized test), or they passed, but were absent to many times to receive credit. This meant that many of my students were below grade level in math. Additionally, many of the summer school students presented behavioral problems. I think a lot of the misbehavior issues stem from a system that has set such low expectations of students, and has consequently left them feeling like school doesn't matter. My students, in general, were pretty well-behaved for duration of summer school (with the exception of one incident that deserves a separate blog entry). I felt pretty lucky that none of my students was completely out of control, because I certainly heard lots of horror stories from the other teachers at my school site. Having a fairly well-behaved class definitely made it easier for me to teach the material I had planned each day.
Once I began teaching summer school, my daily routine at Black Middle School included going to 3-4 hours of sessions to gain more knowledge about effective teaching, teaching my 7th grade math class, lunch room duty, and then collaborating with my fellow math teachers about the material we had to teach. We didn't have a math book, so a lot of the time, it felt like we were creating everything from scratch. We taught about anything from adding/subtracting negative numbers, to scientific notation, and basic algebra problems. It was challenging to break everything down to small, simple steps, because a lot of the material has become so second nature to me. Then each day, when I got to Rice University, I had to make all the material the following day (notes, worksheets, quizzes, PowerPoints) and rehearse my lesson. Classes were 75 minutes long - in many respects, I felt like I was preparing for a 75 minute presentation everyday. And the difficult part was that every single minute had to be engaging in order to keep the students in check. Add on top of everything, I had to make phone calls to parents, debrief with my adviser about my lessons, turn in future lesson plans drafts and before I knew it, I was consistently up working 19 to 20 hours a day. Day after day of this type of work schedule was physically and mentally exhausting. Yet despite this, I still appreciated every bit of the institute experience, because I knew I was being pushed to become a better teacher, and I believed that I was making daily gains in my own teaching abilities.
By the end of my four weeks teaching summer school, I was happy to see that many of my students had gained something from being in my math class. I came into institute unsure of whether I could really make a difference in the short four week time frame of summer school, but I was pleasantly surprised of the progress that was still made. From that, I have a greater sense of confidence and excitement for what I can do with a full school year. I'll close by sharing some notes that my students wrote. Some are pretty funny, and refreshingly honest:
"You are the best teacher!"
"I think you're my best math teacher ever. Well not the best teacher ever, but you are a cool teacher. The thing I like about you is that you explain stuff in sloooow steps."
"You are the next best math teacher I had."
"This summer I had a pretty good teacher and I really enjoyed your class and I had lots of fun."
"I want to thank you for making me become smarter and better at math. This summer it feels like I've learned a lot. Thanks for teaching me well in class and being patient."
"Thank you for spending your time to teach me everything I need to know for 8th grade, and the rest of my life."
"Mr. Tran, you are the only teacher that has taught me how to divide and I even made a hundred (on 1 quiz). Thanks so much for being patient with me."
"Have a great summer. Don't get injured Mr. Tran!"
I really enjoyed reading those students notes, even the one where the student retracted her statement about me being her best math teacher. Little things like these notes have reaffirmed my decision to join TFA, and give me hope that I might be able to make a difference as a teacher.
I'm sure I forgotten many things that have happened in these past few weeks, but I will leave this blog entry at that, and will be more diligent about updating once I start teaching during the regular school year!
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